How Can Homeowners Locate Indoor Cockroach Nesting Sites And Egg Cases?

Knowing you have a cockroach infestation can drive a homeowner nuts. You know those creepy little pests are sneaking around your home, hiding god-knows-where, and waiting for the cover of night to come out and run around your kitchen and scaring the living daylights out of anyone that is unfortunate enough to enter the kitchen in the middle of the night. Being able to find where these pests are nesting inside your home would help you try to do your own damage control, and if that doesn’t work, at least you’ll know which direction in which to point pest control professionals.

One factor involved in locating nesting sites is that different species of cockroaches prefer different when looking for a place to nest inside your home. One of the most common cockroaches found inside our homes, the German cockroach, prefers moist, warm areas, including areas like tight cracks located in your bathroom and kitchen. Oriental cockroaches, one of the larger cockroaches you might encounter, usually choose nesting spots below the ground level of your home such as basements and crawl spaces. Brownbanded cockroaches are less picky, and will nest pretty much anywhere in your house, often in higher spots and appliances. While the American cockroach tends to infest commercial buildings, you may find their nest in warmer areas such as inside heating ducts and sewer pipes.

The best way to discover cockroach nesting spots, unfortunately, is to make yourself enter a dark room at night while they are more active, and flip on the lights to see where they scatter to. This will give you a general idea of where the nesting site is located. The best way to go about this type of “hunt” is to draw a diagram of each room before you go in and surprise them, and then go through each room scaring the crap out of your unwanted guests and watching where they run. You’ll want to have a small vacuum cleaner on hand to suck up as many runners as you can. You should also make sure to check behind and under cabinets, furniture, and any other places they could hide.

You can also find their nesting sites by paying attention to what the cockroaches leave behind them. One thing to look for is their feces, which looks like little black spots similar to pepper flakes. A lot of feces means you have a lot of cockroaches. Other things to look out for are their oval egg casings, as well as skin adult cockroaches leave behind from molting.

Have you ever found the nesting site of a cockroach infestation you had in your home?